B-52 stability augmentation system reliability

The B-52 SAS (Stability Augmentation System) was developed and retrofitted to nearly 300 aircraft. It actively controls B-52 structural bending, provides improved yaw and pitch damping through sensors and electronic control channels, and puts complete reliance on hydraulic control power for rudder and elevators. The system has experienced over 300,000 flight hours and has exhibited service reliability comparable to the results of the reliability test program. Development experience points out numerous lessons with potential application in the mechanization and development of advanced technology control systems of high reliability

River Discharge, in State of the Climate in 2008

The global mean temperature in 2008 was slightly cooler than that in 2007; however, it still ranks within the 10 warmest years on record. Annual mean temperatures were generally well above average in South America, northern and southern Africa, Iceland, Europe, Russia, South Asia, and Australia. In contrast, an exceptional cold outbreak occurred during January across Eurasia and over southern European Russia and southern western Siberia. There has been a general increase in land-surface temperatures and in permafrost temperatures during the last several decades throughout the Arctic region, including increases of 1° to 2°C in the last 30 to 35 years in Russia. Record setting warm summer (JJA) air temperatures were observed throughout Greenland

U.S. River Discharge for 2008 in State of the Climate in 2008

The global mean temperature in 2008 was slightly cooler than that in 2007; however, it still ranks within the 10 warmest years on record. Annual mean temperatures were generally well above average in South America, northern and southern Africa, Iceland, Europe, Russia, South Asia, and Australia. In contrast, an exceptional cold outbreak occurred during January across Eurasia and over southern European Russia and southern western Siberia. There has been a general increase in land-surface temperatures and in permafrost temperatures during the last several decades throughout the Arctic region, including increases of 1° to 2°C in the last 30 to 35 years in Russia. Record setting warm summer (JJA) air temperatures were observed throughout Greenland

Methane emissions from western Siberian wetlands: heterogeneity and sensitivity to climate change

The prediction of methane emissions from high-latitude wetlands is important given concerns about their sensitivity to a warming climate. As a basis for the prediction of wetland methane emissions at regional scales, we coupled the variable infiltration capacity macroscale hydrological model (VIC) with the biosphere–energy-transfer–hydrology terrestrial ecosystem model (BETHY) and a wetland methane emissions model to make large-scale estimates of methane emissions as a function of soil temperature, water table depth, and net primary productivity (NPP), with a parameterization of the sub-grid heterogeneity of the water table depth based on TOPMODEL. We simulated the methane emissions from a 100 km × 100 km region of western Siberia surrounding the Bakchar Bog, for a retrospective baseline period of 1980–1999 and have evaluated their sensitivity to increases in temperature of 0–5 °C and increases in precipitation of 0–15%. The interactions of temperature and precipitation, through their effects on the water table depth, played an important role in determining methane emissions from these wetlands. The balance between these effects varied spatially, and their net effect depended in part on sub-grid topographic heterogeneity. Higher temperatures alone increased methane production in saturated areas, but caused those saturated areas to shrink in extent, resulting in a net reduction in methane emissions. Higher precipitation alone raised water tables and expanded the saturated area, resulting in a net increase in methane emissions. Combining a temperature increase of 3 °C and an increase of 10% in precipitation to represent climate conditions that may pertain in western Siberia at the end of this century resulted in roughly a doubling in annual emissions

Sex Differences in Rhythmic Preferences in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus): A Comparative Study with Humans

A variety of parrot species have recently gained attention as members of a small group of non-human animals that are capable of coordinating their movements in time with a rhythmic pulse. This capacity is highly developed in humans, who display unparalleled sensitivity to musical beats and appear to prefer rhythmically organized sounds in their music. Do parrots also exhibit a preference for rhythmic over arrhythmic sounds? Here we presented humans and budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) – a small parrot species that have been shown to be able to align movements with a beat – with rhythmic and arrhythmic sound patterns in an acoustic place preference paradigm. Both species were allowed to explore an environment for 5 minutes. We quantified how much time they spent in proximity to rhythmic vs. arrhythmic stimuli. The results show that humans spent more time with rhythmic stimuli, and also preferred rhythmic stimuli when directly asked in a post-test survey. Budgerigars did not show any such overall preferences. However, further examination of the budgerigar results showed an effect of sex, such that male budgerigars spent more time with arrthymic stimuli, and female budgerigars spent more time with rhythmic stimuli. Our results support the idea that rhythmic information is interesting to budgerigars. We suggest that future investigations into the temporal characteristics of naturalistic social behaviors in budgerigars, such as courtship vocalizations and head-bobbing displays, may help explain the sex difference we observed

Mode Bifurcation and Fold Points of Complex Dispersion Curves for the Metamaterial Goubau Line

In this paper the complex dispersion curves of the four lowest-order transverse magnetic modes of a dielectric Goubau line ($\epsilon>0, \mu>0$) are compared with those of a dispersive metamaterial Goubau line. The vastly different dispersion curve structure for the metamaterial Goubau line is characterized by unusual features such as mode bifurcation, complex fold points, both proper and improper complex modes, and merging of complex and real modes

The other side of the story - maternal perceptions of safety advice and information: a qualitative approach

Background: A qualitative study of maternal perceptions of home safety advice. The aim was to gain an understanding of maternal perceptions of and possible barriers to the implementation of home safety advice. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 37 mothers with a child aged less than 5 years of age; 16 were mothers living in an area of socio-economic disadvantage (with a high rate of childhood unintentional injury), 21 were mothers living in an area of relative affluence (with a low rate of childhood unintentional injury). Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Although some mothers living in both areas found talking to a health professional about child home safety was helpful, mothers in both areas tended to find talking to other mothers as being more helpful and they preferred this to talking to a professional. Barriers to obtaining safety advice from professionals exist for mothers living in both areas. Mothers living in the advantaged area describe ‘feeling silly’ and that they should ‘know it already’ when talking to professionals. Mothers living in the disadvantaged area are less likely to access home safety advice due to fear of being perceived as an incompetent mother and the fear of social service involvement. Conclusions: Mothers find home safety advice from other parents more useful and prefer this to advice from professionals. This suggests greater use could be made of appropriately trained parents to deliver safety advice and education. Fear and mistrust can limit access to child safety advice in parents living in disadvantaged areas and this may be a potential explanation for differential unintentional injury rates as those who need the advice and support most may be least likely to access it. Further research should explore how professionals can build trust, gain parents’ confidence and provide child safety advice and education that is targeted appropriately to parents living circumstances and their child safety needs

Treatment of breast cancer: Imo State Nigeria versus Indiana, USA women -- comparative analytic study

BACKGROUND: Women with breast cancer undergo multimodal treatment for best outcome. This study seeks to identify the treatment challenges for such women in Imo State, Nigeria vis-à-vis similar women in Indiana USA. We compared the treatment modalities of both groups; noting predictors of compliance for subsequent action. SETTING: Federal Medical Centre, Owerri; Imo State, Imo State University, Orlu, Nigeria and Indiana University Hospital, Indiana, USA. DESIGN: A retrospective study. METHODOLOGY: From 2000-2013, 100 randomly pulled charts of patients treated for pathologically confirmed breast cancer in Imo, Nigeria Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State University Hospital; and Indiana University Hospital U.S. respectively were reviewed. The demographics, clinical and pathological data of the patients with confirmed breast cancer were obtained. The data were formatted and analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. The clinical features, management options, outcomes and specific features were compared for both groups using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests (age, parity) and chi-square tests for all other variables. A 5% significance level was used for all tests. RESULTS: One hundred patients were included for each group. The mean/minimum ages; Imo, Nigeria 41.7/21 (SD/SE 15.3/1.5) vs. Indiana, U.S.56.4/29 (SD 12.4/SE 1.2) p<0.0001. Histology for Indiana USA women was predominantly ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) P<0.0001 while that of Imo, Nigeria was invasive ductal carcinoma inflammatory cancer P<0.0326. Women in both locations received chemotherapy and surgery. Imo women received less radiotherapy. Toxicity from chemotherapy remained constant features for both groups, P<0.0001. In Indiana USA, the 5year survival exceeded 85%; In Imo Nigeria it was 10%. This study showed that Women on both locations who were likely to be compliant were those receiving mastectomy; Imo, Nigeria 44(56%) <0.013 vs. Indiana, U.S. 74(80%) p<0.0186; women with cosmesis given; Imo, Nigeria 41(42%) vs. Indiana, U.S. 91 (94%) p<0.0001. Sample sizes were inadequate to perform multivariable models. CONCLUSION: The multimodal treatment regimen implied that there was need for an algorithm protocol for breast cancer women. Thus the need to improve the quality of treatment particularly in Nigeria by improved treatment documentation to overcome key barriers involving information exchange

Acoustic allometry revisited: morphological determinants of fundamental frequency in primate vocal production

A fundamental issue in the evolution of communication is the degree to which signals convey accurate (“honest”) information about the signaler. In bioacoustics, the assumption that fundamental frequency (fo) should correlate with the body size of the caller is widespread, but this belief has been challenged by various studies, possibly because larynx size and body size can vary independently. In the present comparative study, we conducted excised larynx experiments to investigate this hypothesis rigorously and explore the determinants of fo. Using specimens from eleven primate species, we carried out an inter-specific investigation, examining correlations between the minimum fo produced by the sound source, body size and vocal fold length (VFL). We found that, across species, VFL predicted minimum fo much better than body size, clearly demonstrating the potential for decoupling between larynx size and body size in primates. These findings shed new light on the diversity of primate vocalizations and vocal morphology, highlighting the importance of vocal physiology in understanding the evolution of mammal vocal communication

Conceptualising quality of life for older people with aphasia

Background: There is an increasing need in speech and language therapy for clinicians to provide intervention in the context of the broader life quality issues for people with aphasia. However, there is no descriptive research that is explicitly focused on quality of life (QoL) from the perspectives of older people with aphasia. Aims: The current study explores how older people with chronic aphasia who are living in the community describe their QoL in terms of what contributes to and detracts from the quality in their current and future lives. The study is descriptive in nature, and the purpose is to conceptualize the factors that influence QoL. Methods & Procedures: Thirty older participants (16 women, 14 men) with mild to moderate aphasic impairment took part. All participants had adequate communication skills to participate: demonstrating reliable yes/no response and moderate auditory comprehension ability. Participants were interviewed in their own homes using six brief unprompted open questions about QoL, in a structured interview. The first five questions were drawn from previous gerontological research (Farquhar, 1995), and a sixth question specifically targeting communication was added. Content analysis was used, identifying discrete units of data and then coding these into concepts and factors. Additional demographic information was collected, and participants’ mood on day of interviewing was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (Sheikh & Yesavage, 1986). Outcomes & Results: Activities, verbal communication, people, and body functioning were the core factors in QoL for these participants, and they described how these factors both contributed quality in life as well as detracted from life quality. Other factors that influenced QoL included stroke, mobility, positive personal outlook, in/dependence, home and health. Whilst the findings are limited by the lack of probing of participants’ responses, the study does present preliminary evidence for what is important in QoL to older people with aphasia. Conclusions: Quality of life for older people with predominantly mild to moderate chronic aphasia who are living in the community is multifactorial in nature. Some factors lie within the remit of speech and language therapy, some lie beyond the professional role, but all are relevant for consideration in rehabilitation and community practice. Further qualitative research is implicated to better understand QoL with aphasia, using in-depth interviewing with a broader range of people with aphasia